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Vita Cortex workers say they will escalate protest

The workers, who have been occupying the company for 135 days say they are disgusted at the rejection of resolution proposals.

THIRTY-TWO VITA Cortex workers who have been occupying the facility in Cork for 135 days say they’re “disgusted” at the rejection of resolution proposals by the company’s owners.

The SIPTU members say that the company has rejected the guidance issued by independent mediators, and instead has “issued a statement which contains a number of untruths and legally questionable assertions”.

SIPTU Organiser Anne Egar said that the statement asserted that the union had sought to exclude some workers from an equitable share of any settlement, and also rejected the company’s claims that it cannot afford to pay redundancy.

In its statement, Vita Cortex said that it believes it has carried out all of its duties and obligations as required.

A tweet from the Vita Cortex workers’ Twitter account last night indicated that the protest is far from over:

Last week the company pulled out of the mediation process which was being overseen by the Labour Relations Commission, saying that there was still “significant distance” between the two parties.

The board and management of Vita Cortex also said that they had had difficulty in dealing with SIPTU on behalf of the workers.

The workers received a boost in support today after Twitter user and Father Ted writer Graham Linehan tweeted a link to a video about their protest to his 175,000 followers, saying “just catching up with this now, the story of the Vita Cortex workers”.

A general meeting of the Vita Cortex workers will take place on Monday 30 April.

Vita Cortex pulls out of LRC mediation process>

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14 Comments
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    Mute Anthony Hilton
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    Aug 16th 2021, 3:40 PM

    When will people realise that the government don’t care about the people

    154
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    Mute Larsen Cib
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    Aug 16th 2021, 3:45 PM

    @Anthony Hilton: why not? Leonardo and Martin said thank you didnt they?
    Now you can store a big thank you in your fridge and pay for your transport to work.

    Just let them know that you are paying with the governments ” thank you “

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    Mute Colm OS
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    Aug 16th 2021, 4:52 PM

    Without doubt Healthcare workers deserve recognition and reward but it wasn’t just Healthcare workers who put themselves at risk. All the supermarket, pharmacy and non hse Healthcare staff (as a few examples) all took on risk which they deserve to be rewarded for

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    Mute Niamh Hughes
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    Aug 16th 2021, 11:57 PM

    @Colm OS: Dunnes stores employees got a 10% raise and a 20% discount card for their shopping. I stand to be corrected but I also think Tesco rewarded their employees too. Healthcare workers got a round of applause.

    12
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    Mute John Fagan
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    Aug 16th 2021, 5:10 PM

    The problem with this is that if you give to one in the union, you have to give it to the lot of them. This includes managers who sat at home during the pandemic, administration staff who worked from home and people who just didn’t bother coming in because they didn’t want to catch covid. Plus the fact that every other public servant will want it. Who decides who deserves it?

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    Mute Niall Lee
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    Aug 16th 2021, 5:22 PM

    @John Fagan: every single one of them

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    Mute Garreth mc mahon
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    Aug 16th 2021, 3:51 PM

    These unions need separation from influence of government, if they are unhappy, go to LRC or labour court for each law broken if any. The days of ministers showing up at conventions also need to stop. The unions have never helped to fix the issues and it’s amazing how many pay rises fix the issues in the HSE

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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 16th 2021, 3:40 PM

    The demand doesn’t seem to be very clear. Are the unions looking for compensation for all workers in the health sector, front line workers or what exactly? How many staff are they seeking compensation for? The HSE employees about 70,000 alone, throw in all the voluntary hospitals, care workers…. They must be able to put a number on it.

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    Mute Derek Moean
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    Aug 16th 2021, 4:10 PM

    Leo will give them around of applause…

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    Mute Ian Breathnach
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    Aug 16th 2021, 9:01 PM

    @Derek Moean: he’ll give them a pay rise, then claim he too is a Doctor and take said pay rise himself.

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    Mute Margaret Kane
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    Aug 17th 2021, 12:34 PM

    TDs certainly don’t suffer hardships they’ve no problems robbing the taxpayers money to give themselves big rises

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